UPDATED 2/15, 5:35 p.m. ET: Apple Music now has Vultures 1 available for streaming again, as noted by Billboard.
See original story below.
The distributor behind the recent release of the artist formerly known as Kanye West's Vultures 1 project with Ty Dolla Sign says it's "actively working" to have the album removed.
As first reported by Elias Leight for Billboard, the album, the first in a planned three-part trilogy, was released through FUGA. The company’s services include music distribution, physical distribution, rights management, and more. FUGA bills itself as “the number one choice” in the distribution space, specifically pointing to its “highly advanced distribution technology” on its official website.
According to a FUGA rep, the company "declined" to commit to a Vultures 1 release last year despite FUGA being linked to its streaming arrival this month. Credits on YouTube, for example, are listed as being “provided to YouTube by IIP-DDS,” a.k.a. FUGA.
“Late last year, FUGA was presented with the opportunity to release Vultures 1,” the company rep told the publication in a report shared Thursday. “Exercising our judgment in the ordinary course of business, we declined to do so.”
As for last week’s release and efforts to have it removed, the rep pointed to a “service agreement” violation. As alleged by the rep, “a long-standing FUGA client delivered the album Vultures 1 through the platform’s automated processes.”
Complex has reached out to FUGA reps for comment.
At the time of this writing, Vultures 1 has been removed from Apple Music. YesJulz, who has been in Ye's camp as of late, appeared to confirm that FUGA was behind the removal with a simple but pointed tweet.
As previously reported, the track "Good (Don't Die)" was recently removed from Spotify after being called out by the estate of Donna Summer.
"Kanye West...asked permission to use Donna Summer's song I Feel Love," a statement shared to the official Donna Summer Instagram account alleged. "He was denied...he changed the words, had someone re sing [sic] it or used AI but it's I Feel Love...copyright infringement!!!"
An earlier version of the Vultures 1 track “Carnival,” meanwhile, featured a Black Sabbath sample that was publicly slammed by Ozzy Osbourne. However, the album version of the song swapped out the actual “Iron Man” for the Sabbath-nodding riff from Ye’s “Hell of a Life,” taken from his 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
As of earlier this week, Vultures 1 is projected to open at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. For Ty, this will mark his first-ever No. 1 album on the chart. For Ye, Vultures 1 will stand as the 11th, preceded most recently by Donda in 2021.
Thursday, it was announced that Ye and Ty would be performing at Rolling Loud California.
